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By: Christine Cocheo
On Tuesday, Oct. 17, the SCC Boardrooms were abuzz with conversation. The Green Dot Melting Pot ran from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. and was run by Magdala Saint-Louis and Aubrey Hall, two key members of the organization, and supported by the Black Student Union, who helped with set up and advertising for the event.
“[Green Dot] is an amazing group of people,” remarks Andrew Rashaad of BSU about Green Dot’s staff.
Green Dot is an organization dedicated to starting conversations about and ending violence, focusing on dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking. Saint-Louis, Green Dot Facilitator, says the goal of the organization is to “Create culture change and end violence.”
Hall, Green Dot Coordinator, emphasized the importance of starting conversations about dating violence.
“Green Dot has worked really hard to build a sustainable program that demonstrates the interests of students,” she said.
With this event, Saint-Louis hopes participants “Talk about domestic violence as it relates to individuals’ cultures as stereotypes, gender roles, and ethnicity influence how you view dating violence.” This event was part of Green Dot awareness week which also included Color Your Campus Green and Clothesline Project on Monday, Cookies, Dots, and Conversation on Wednesday, and Bystander Training on Friday.
To open the night, Paige Ramsey-Hamacher, the Executive Director for Student Success, led a Cross the Line Activity where she read a series of questions and students would take a step forward to cross the line if the question applied to them. It started with questions about hobbies and moved into deeper topics about politics, culture, family, relationships, abuse, and diversity. The questions delve into topics that are relevant and purposeful, albeit a little uncomfortable.
Participants see that there are people in their community facing adversities that may not have been relevant to them beforehand, but these issues can no longer be ignored when you have people right in front of you admitting that these issues are problems for them. Participants stepped forward to acknowledge witnessing abuse, their family dynamics, and experiencing being stereotyped and being treated differently due to their differences.
After the Cross the Line activity, participants were divided into groups led by a facilitator to further discuss the topics of culture and dating violence. “The purpose here isn’t for us to come to some consensus, it is to learn about our differences,” announced Saint-Louis.
There was a facilitator in each group who read a set of questions for the participants to discuss together. Participants seemed to quickly delve deeply into the topics at hand. One question was about emotional and physical abuse.
“The things you say and the way you treat them is also abuse,” says student Gryer Cox.
On dating violence, student Nicole Yager believes that consent is always necessary.
“People think because you are in a relationship it is not considered rape, but it is,” Yager said.
When it comes to creating change, it was clear that many participants agreed that men should be more involved in the conversation about dating violence and sexual assault.
“This is a one-sided debate about a two-participant situation,” commented student Katriel Grant-Hope.
Saint-Louis voiced that, “Violence can end in a community through behavior change. At Saint Leo, it is up to students to continue this conversation and to be active bystanders to spark behavior change.”
Hall and Saint-Louis encourage organizations to partner with them to spread awareness. If you would like to meet with them, Green Dot is located in DeChantal Hall room 110B, with office hours 1-4 PM Monday through Friday. Don’t forget to use the hashtag #GreenDotLeo!
